


belladonna

by demonicneonfishy



Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [7]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Hallucinations, M/M, Poisoning, Pre-Canon, Torture, joe's not having a good day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29308590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonicneonfishy/pseuds/demonicneonfishy
Summary: The man looks him up and down. “Hemlock poisoning is particularly horrible. It can be survived, if you can keep the patient breathing, but…” He smiles, and Joe would punch him if he could. “That’s not really a concern here.”
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141784
Comments: 1
Kudos: 53





	belladonna

**Author's Note:**

> day 7 of febuwhump 2021  
> prompt: poisoning

Joe and Nicky had discovered early on in their immortality that poison could still kill them. In the right dosage. And, in Joe’s opinion, it was one of the worst ways to go.

He’d been on a job alone, and gotten lazy, and this was the consequence. Locked in a tiny room with barely enough food and water to stay alive. 

They’d figured out he couldn’t die about an hour after he’d woken up. They’d worked out that poison still had an effect soon after that. Then they’d figured out the dose it took to kill him.

“How are you feeling?” one of his captors says. He’d been the one to force this round of poison down Joe’s throat, and hadn’t left the room since, staying crouched just out of Joe’s reach.  “Jones, wasn’t it?”

Is that the alias he’s going by now? It’s difficult to keep track sometimes, and his mind is already addled as it is. He’s starting to feel the effects of whatever they’d given him - his heart is racing, he’s trembling, his muscles ache. They never seem to give him the same poison twice, as if they’re testing them out, trying to find something that will kill him for good.

He really, really hopes the others find him soon.

With a start, he realises he can’t feel his fingers. Or his toes.

The man looks him up and down. “Hemlock poisoning is particularly horrible. It can be survived, if you can keep the patient breathing, but…” He smiles, and Joe would punch him if he could. “That’s not really a concern here.”

The man watches as the numbness spreads, until Joe can’t breathe properly, until he succumbs to the darkness.

* * *

The light is too bright.

There’s one fluorescent strip light on the ceiling that flickers every few minutes, and it’s gotten steadily brighter. Or is that just whatever they’d given him this time?

And then, the door opens. And  _ Nicky  _ enters the room.

The image is too sharp, the colors all wrong, but it’s still Nicky, and Joe reaches out for him.

“Nicoló?” Joe whispers.

Nicky says something, but his voice sounds far away, almost as if he’s underwater. 

Then Joe blinks, and blood is spreading across Nicky’s shirt as he sinks to the floor, his eyes going glassy, lips still forming Joe’s name-

And disappears.

“Interesting,” the man standing over him says. 

_ When I get out of here, _ Joe thinks,  _ I’m going to burn this place to the ground _ -

* * *

“Joe.”

He gasps awake. 

The man is lying on the floor with a bloody hole in his head, and  _ Nicky  _ is crouched in front of him, the real Nicky, not some poison-induced hallucination.

“Are you okay?” Nicky asks.

“Not exactly, but I’ll be okay.”

“We need to get out of here,” Nicky tells him. “Can you stand?”

“Probably.”

He lets Nicky pull him to his feet, and they walk out of the room together.

* * *

“It took me too long to find you,” Nicky says later, when they’re alone and safe. “I’m sorry.”

“You got me out,” Joe says, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “That’s all that matters.”

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know if this is entirely canon compliant but i don't remember anyone mentioning that the guard couldn't die from poison so here we go.  
> -  
> i'm demonicneonfishy on tumblr too if you wanna come say hi!! (or yell at me for the angst)


End file.
